


A Series of Tubes

by EvilKingofNinjas



Category: Star Trek: Lower Decks (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Rating May Change, Tags May Change, attempts at humor, final draft? what's that??, mentions of drinking/drunkeness, mentions of past trauma, nothing fancy, possible OOC moments? i'unno, we'll see
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 07:47:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27467449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilKingofNinjas/pseuds/EvilKingofNinjas
Summary: A collection of drabbles taking place in the inner workings of the USS Cerritos.Moments revolving around handful of her crew.
Relationships: Brad Boimler/Beckett Mariner
Comments: 15
Kudos: 17





	1. Let the chips fall where they may

“Captain's...guh..Ensign's log, Stardate 3346534.f

The Cerritos’ impulse systems have been experiencing fluctuations in the power intake from the warp core, the culprit that has been my 'white whale' for the last shift and a half has turned out to be none other then a couple of..dozen relay chips dislodged coming out of warp through that nebula-ACHK!”

Ensign Bradward Boimler felt himself falling backward, just before he had gone to lean back in the cramped space of the Jeffery's tube junction, nestled deep into the inner corridors of the ship, trying to stretch from his task of resetting the relay cards.He clenched his jaw, expecting the harsh impact of a ceramic/alloy tube panel against his back, only to be surprised by the supple give of uniformed lap he had felt cushion him instead.

"Oh yeah! just the stale piece of white bread I was looking for!"

Brad blinked his eyelids open to see his fellow officer, Beckett Mariner smiling widely as she gazed down at him, looking him over as one hand sets a half-finished bottle of Romulan Ale aside,and the other hand weaves through his hair.

He let out a dramatic sigh as he watched her sway a bit drunkenly."I coulda swore I closed that hatch." he spoke sullenly, casting somewhat of an accusatory glower her way as she only narrowed her eyes.

"Random inspection, ‘ensign’.Just checking my inventory..making sure nobody gets too *familier*...open wide." she picked up the bottle to open it before he flailed out his arms trying to sit up straight.

"Mariner, for crying out loud, we're on duty.I just about had these things in the right slots-"

"-and I was about to go for your armpits to make you laugh like Daffy Duck for your cozy little captain's log." she rested a cheek against his shoulder." We were off duty three hours ago.. you're gonna wind up dozing off under the warp core..wake up all Glowy and green like the Cardasian whiskey that i’m almost out of .” She sat quietly as he had repositioned himself to sit next to her in the narrow tubes. "I wondered where ya disappeared to, even the ship was pretty vague about which sub-section of lower level something of somewhere.."

Boimler only blinked as his brows furrowed somewhat. “Well,I only just tracked the power intake glitch to this relay station, if its not handled then-

-It can reroute through the secondary intakes,like theyre designed to do! Bradward,” Beckett had taken his hand as he went about gathering the scattered relay chips, and their eyes finally met. "She's a tough bird, she'll hold together..ya just gotta Believe!”

Brad held her gaze before she took another swig of the alien drink, letting out a sigh before settling back against the tube wall,”Of course, I believe. I believe if I do my job right and hope that everyone else does the same ,than *maybe* I’ll live to have a bird of my own that runs so ..good.”  
She seemed to be studying the lines of his hand as he mumbled drowsily. “.. and doing a good job means putting those chips in their proper slots, did you see where the last one went..?”

Mariner let out a rather devious laugh as she releases his hand to slip across from him in the confined area of the tube intersection as he felt around.  
“you mean this one?” asking coyly as she held one up between her fingers. She ducked back with a feral grin, pointing to the ale bottle. ”ya wanna finish a job? finish that, Ahab.”,slipping the chip into the low cut of her tank top.

Brad bit back a grit of his teeth as he looked her over, the gears of his tired brain trying to crank out some speech about responsibility and duty to their crew and command before finally shaking that off entirely, tipping the bottle back as a chilled citrusy fire coursed down his throat before the aftertaste knocked him back with a choke.  
”Oh my guh-hawd! What do ya chase that down with, battery acid?!” he cleared his throat harshly.

Grinning wickedly, Mariner backed against another hatch as she watched Boimler try to get his bearings, hitting the release and sliding back as soon as she saw him reach out to catch her, about to make it for the ladder that took her to the upper tubes before she was seized around the waist in a rough tackle from the side.She fished the relay chip from her shirt, holding it high before he could snatch it out of her hand .  
He pulled himself up the narrowed way as she rolled onto her back and fought back a bark of laughter, looking down at him struggling to collect the final prize. 

Brad pulled himself up with one final sweat laced grunt before his face planted right into the low cut of her tank top.

“Engineering to Boimler ,we need those primaries for a warp jump, possible yellow alert, did you find that leak?”

Mariner bit her lip ,watching him flush bright red as he adjusted to the side of her, answering his comm badge, cutting her a rueful glare.”..i-I just about got it, sir.two more minutes.”

“If you need some help , I can-” Beckett then answered her own comm badge,”yeah,nothing to sweat, we got this,Mariner out.”setting the chip in his hand.  
She watched him swing around to climb back up to his previous position before she noticed that ale catch up with him as he mumbled and muttered the different spots the chips had fallen out as they were replaced ,watching the slightest smile take to his face as he answered his comm once more. “Aaaaalright, we’re all set down here!“

Chief Engineer Billups sat back at his station with a raised brow toward his comm with a nod,”we are at nominal .good work, Boimler.”

“Roger that, Boimler ou-WOO-WOOHOOWO-“

Brad felt the tickling fingers slip from under his arms to around his chest as a giddily-drunken ensign Mariner tried in vain to catch her breath ,laughing so hard, hugging him tightly, if only to keep him from twisting around to explode lividly.

”Are you even capable of at least *acting normal* when it comes to important stuff like this?!”

“Capable?..certainly.”Beckett replied, resting her chin on his shoulder once more.” Interested? Hell no. I’d have to be on duty for that to matter..which you happen to *not* be at the moment.”He glowers once more, crossing his arms.

”So if 'important stuff' happens to be being on time for a yellow alert and all that it entails, then that was indeed a good job, Bradward.” Beckett only smirked cattily then leans up and kisses his cheek. ”Hero of the minute and a half. Y’know, before something else decides to jar loose.”  
Feeling his momentary ire deflate at her gesture, his shoulders sag in a relaxed motion as they sit there in eachother’s company.”..I suppose Delta shift can handle that.”

Mariner nodded as she tugged him back to follow toward the direction of one of her hidden contraband caches. ”Thats the spirit Boims,c’mon,lets go get glowy.”

————  
Beckett set her shot glass down after finishing its illuminated contents and stifled a yawn of her own.She looked down at the sleeping Bradward next to her, with a tribble purring on his other shoulder. She then layed back with him, on the floor of that cozy junction,sharing a moving blanket from one of her stowed crates. 

Though she would never admit it to his face, that spark of enthusiasm he had for this line of work was gut-wrenchingly adorable in it's own way.

Being another cog in the starfleet clockwork could most certainly prove to be a drag when it wanted to be, but he seemed to find actual joy in it, even the especially boring parts, much to her everlasting confoundment.

Good thing she had the day off tomorrow or later that day. Her would-be sidekick rested his head on her shoulder ,laying her head against his as she dozed off.


	2. a long way to the top

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Under orders, Boimler goes to seek Mariner out.

"Personal log stardate 333875.c  
It would seem Commander Ransom has caught on to one of my fellow ensign’s methods of “appearing busy”. After much deliberation, it has fallen onto me to find where they have disappeared to.even if it means scouring every nook and cranny of the Cerritos..”

Bradward pulled himself up the stretch of ladder in the narrow tunnel he had begun ascending some twenty minutes ago.”…and it did.”

He had reached a hatch just to the left of the ladder ,finally pulling himself onto its platform to catch his breath.he then turned to face the hatch and then activated its unlock only to be met with a negative ‘boop’*access denied*.

“Mariner, I know you’re in there, open up.”

The other side of the hatch was silent for a moment before her voice called out,“what’s the password?”

He shakes his head with a pat of his stomach.”Acrophobia?’

“Nope..?”

Boimler narrowed his eye shrewdly before answering,“Claustrophobia..”

“Try again..”

His patience wore thin.“..Exhaustion!”

“Oh please..”

Boimler pulls open his shirt to finally pull out a small yellow striped cat with her comm badge attached to it’s collar,”How about ‘ ** _Hostage?!_ _”_** with a tired mew, more silence followed before the hatch slid open.

He followed in after the cat hopped from his hands and scratched before casually padding inside. ”Y’know, ducking out of a shift here and there is one thing, stuff happens, I understand but why _yyyyyyyyy_ …areyoulikethat?”

Mariner sat before him in the darkened makeshift lair that was once a substation nestled somewhere halfway up the left strut, one of the many hiding holes that ships like these were riddled with.  
She lowered the phaser as the cat came up to her, nuzzling her hand lightly she lifted the animal up and laid back on an overstuffed mattress, only in her regulation undergarments. The lighting dialed down to a low moody pastel tint.  
“Stuff happens. yeah, that’s about the high and low of it right there.” She spoke quietly as she set the cat down.”..Finally came a callin’, I see.”

Boimler’s eyes almost bugged out at the accusation,looking around franticly.”Captain Freeman is looking for you, so she has Commander Ransom looking for you, who has ME looking for you, and he had quite a long string of not-nice things to say about your little stowaway here after what it left on his new dress uniform-“

“Aw, there’s no room to do your little “nervous boy jig” in here, Brad! just siddown!”  
Mariner rolled her eyes as she then reached up to grab him by the collar and yank him onto the cot.”Pickles is not a stowaway, well he was, then he just stuck around as a classroom pet.”

Boimler struggled to get rolled onto his back. “The cat is not the problem,Beckett ..well _**it is**_ but getting the brass stirred up like that is-“ RIIIIIIPPPPPP…*

“..dangerous.Computer,raise lighting levels.”

“>boop<,access denied.”

“Oh,Come on!” He tried to sit up, turning to her ,next to him as she turned up the intensity of a desk lamp next to the cot. Brad blinked silently as he took in the bared skin of his fellow officer.She turned her head to him as she plucked a strand of tape from her lips.

” First rule of piracy, Bradward, Know thy ship and all the ways she can aid you.”

Brad ventured a better look at her in the light, his slack jawed expression morphing to one of bewilderment, taking note of the visible recent injuries she seemed to have sustained. ”What happened to you? what are these, scratches? Sucker Marks?! Just what the hell has been going on-?!“.  
Beckett set the length of tape in his hand ,narrowing her eyes as she held her hair up, turning her back to him, letting out a beleaguered sigh.

“Things got a little hairy during a holo-deck session, that’s all.Right there, just under the right shoulder blade.” He raised a brow as he tentatively applied the medical tape to her skin, pressing his palm against it as he looked her over once more. ”A couple of strips of nano-tape aren’t going to do for some of these, you probably need a sickbay.”

“T'ana tends to notch up the grouchiness when I show up more then say, two or three times a week. I don't go crying to the doc for every little boo-boo.I happen to be a grown ass WOO-man..” Beckett arches a brow at him as he raises his hands up in quick surrender, before she sticks another piece of tape at the end of his nose.”Warm your hands up, this isn’t Prom night.”

Brad furrows his own brow as he looks for another scratch to patch. ”So you're ducking out on the captain AND Ransom to get knocked around the holo-deck? for what?! I thought after what happened to Rutherford and that 'Badgey' abomination of his-

“For your information,It was a training program .I was way behind this quarter, so I spend my precious free time slogging through the boring ass stuff and find something that clutches onto that attention span of mine for more than a fleeting moment and I ..may have got caught off guar-”

“ -More like you *may* have taken the Safety Protocols off, which..no..for training stuff, no ,you shouldn’t do that.” Brad fell silent as she turned to him with another sour look before he averted his gaze and set the tape on a cut, further down her back. ”..So what was the program?”

“A relic from the Dominion days, ya wouldn’t like it.” She said distantly as she scritched at Pickles’ ear as he happened by.  
Brad shakes his head as he applies pressure to the tape on her lower back. ”Well, try me, the war training sims were the closest form of entertainment they had when I was still in the academ-“

“It dealt with shapeshifters, Brad.”He seemed to gawk at that before she turned her face to him rare glimmer of seriousness in her eyes before she simply laid back against him. “This would be my third shot at it and..as you can plainly see, that program has bounced my ass off every wall in that holodeck semi-consecutively!”

“Cuz ya..turned the safety protocols off?” Brad flinched backward as she spun around with a fierce look in her eyes before she grasps his open shirt and yanks him forward. ”Boimler, for one damned thing, that deck malfunctions all the time! Protocols or no, its you verses a creature that can take any form! Like someone you know, someone you love, or something out of your worst nightmares!”

Beckett seemed to search his eyes almost franticly as he blinked in apprehension, before they sank into another awkward silence ,she finally muttered in the faintest whisper.”..you got to always be ready, Brad."

He watches her closely ,moving from struggling to get her to loosen the grip on his shirt lapels to gently taking her hands, meeting her gaze with the most sincerity he could muster.  
“No one's ever really ready.Beckett.Not all the time anyway." Narrowing his eyes before looking down at her hands, shaking his head indignantly. "If you think I'm ever ready for half the _wacky hijinks_ that occur whenever we seem to cross paths, you're in for quite the surprise.." She almost looked down abashedly at that, relaxing her grip and watching him again.

Brad met her gaze once more as he slips his hands up her biceps gently." But we are part of a team. and being part of a team means being there for one another no matter the size of _**any** _proble-m?"

She didn’t even wait for him to finish as she slipped her arms around his neck in a tight embrace. He stiffened a moment before settling his hands onto her bare skin, mindful of the bandages. She had wiped at her eyes before meeting his gaze once more. The tender look morphing into one of surprise as she hears the entry hatch suddenly hiss open. “..Crap.”

From the open doorway emerged an especially exhausted and irate looking Captain Freeman, turning to them only to gawk surprisedly at the two of them in an awkward position.” Mariner,you had better have a DAMN good excuse— oh good lord,Ensign Boimler??!”

Beckett grabs the cat, leaping back onto Brad’s lap as he blanched with a fearful whimper. “Well,that’s a demerit.” A defiant smirk tugs at Mariner’s lips as she hooks an arm around his neck, raising a brow at the captain.

”The password is ‘Hostage’,Boims. _**MWAHAHAH!”**_ Her palm smacks against the emergency panel behind his head. The floor under the bed came loose from the substation ,descending down at a hazardous pace before the breaks engaged again causing them to jolt to a stop at one of the main engineering levels, she quickly leapt to her feet to drag him off the lift before it ascended again, no doubt at the captain’s heed.

Brad could only stare on before turning to her numbly. ”….You really have completely lost your mind, haven't you? I mean that kinda goes without saying at this rate, but Holy mother of Crap,what the hell are we _doing_..?!"

Beckett plucked her comm badge from the cat’s collar, kneeling to set it down as it scampered off somewhere, then standing up to tug him close for a light peck against the side of his mouth. ”Be ready for anything, Bradward..including this!”. She opened his shirt all the way to yank it from his shoulders, pulling it over her own as she made her way into another Jefferey’s tube entrance.

A more daring side of him would have considered going after her until the sound of the platform lift docking quelled that suggestion entirely as the captain’s eyes bore into his own .  
“Captain Freeman, u-upon close inspection of the offending party, ie; the animal also known as “Pickles’, I have determined the creature to be a simple house..cat.”

“Boimler,I am only going to ask this once,where did she go?”

“I’m afraid it got loose again, sir . But no doubt with a little food laid out at all the small enough openings-“

“ **MARINER** ,YOU MILKSOP-!“

His eyes widened as she let out a low growl, looking him over before rolling her eyes, clearing her throat and speaking a low commanding tone.”…If you see her again, tell her I still want to see her in my ready-room, understood?”

“a-Aye,Captain.” Boimler stood at attention. Freeman narrowed her eyes judgingly at him before storming toward the direction of the turbo-lift.

———————

The final waste filter was loaded onto the tram from the Holodeck’s collection port with a wipe of his brow before Boimler heard the room’s doors open.

Mariner steps in, dressed in a uniform, looking over the intersecting yellow lines that covered the wall before finally meeting his gaze. She pulls something from her pocket, not venturing too close to the green fumes wafting from the filters as she stepped up to him with a smile. ”..lose this?”

Brad blinked as she set his comm badge in his gloved hand. He shook his head as his eyes narrowed dubiously.” Thanks..and my shirt?”

Mariner grinned widely as she cocked her head, running a hand over the red embroidery of her or rather _his_ shirt.”Well, it turns out you and I both wear a ’34 extra-Medium’.what are the odds?”

He rolled his eyes as checked his PADD device for any new assignments only for her to set a hand on his arm to push it down, causing him to look in her direction with a curious raised brow.

“This is probably a stupid question but have you eaten?”

He blinked again before he cast a rueful look at the filter tram before looking to her and shaking his head.

Beckett nods before padding his shoulder ,holding her nose with one hand and grabbing the handle of the tram. ”We’ll drop this off and go get something, c'mon..”

They both dragged the tram toward the doorway. ” ..What happened with the captain?”

“Oh..Pickles gets to stay with the kids, you’re not demoted, you’re not demerited, and I should behave more responsibly as an officer of this ship and the Federation, and so on and so forth..”The door opened before them. ”..But you may have been volunteered to be my partner for the rest of my training sims for this quarter so * _yay_ *.”

Boimler turned to her with a look of pure horror just before the doors closed behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **


End file.
